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In recent years wheels have gotten stiffer and bikes have gotten plusher. Riders are running wider tires at lower pressures and riding more aggressively on rougher trails. Taking all of this into account, SPANK decided it was time to change the wheel. Meet the SPANK SPIKE 350 Vibrocore for DH and freeride and the SPANK OOZY 350 for trail, all mountain and enduro.

The OOZY 350 will be available as rims in both 27.5-inch and 29-inch sizes for $100, or as a complete wheelset for $650.

With the widening trend found in rim widths, the profile has also gotten deeper. SPANK turns this on its head with both of its new wheels, featuring a much reduced profile while keeping the rims wide. Both rims feature a 17-millimeter sectional profile height, down from the more conventional 22-millimeter height found on many alloy rims. Both new rims will have a 35-millimeter outer width and a 30.5-millimeter inner. According to SPANK’s tests, this lower and wider profile is showing around 30 percent more radial compliancy compared to a more conventional alloy rim - radial compliancy being the wheels inward and outward (up and down) deformation radially from the center.

A shallower profile in a wider rim promises a better ride.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, how does it translate to what we are all here for - the riding? Outside of the machine-built, bermed-out highways that are popping up everywhere, most trails I have ridden have square rocks, off-camber roots or some sort of obstacle just waiting to knock my front wheel off course and send me over the bars when I least expect it. According to SPANK, with their new profile this would happen less often. Instead of jumping off the intended line, the extra radial flex in SPANK’s lower and wider rims move with the rider’s momentum and the bike’s forward direction. In other words, the wheels will track better laterally due to an increase in radial (vertical) compliance.

All this talk of flex might have you thinking these new hoops are a step backward from the stiff carbon rims everybody raves about. But these rims only have claimed extra flex inward and outward from the center - the good kind of flex. Lateral stiffness and torsional strength are reportedly increased with the new profile, keeping the wheel true and reducing chances of the dreaded taco.

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Jund al-Islam | جند الإسلام

Location:
Jund al-Islam has claimed at least two attacks in North Sinai. It is unclear whether the group has had a presence outside the Sinai Peninsula.

Location:

Characteristics:
In its first attack, the group employed rocket-propelled grenades and two vehicles loaded with explosives. Currently, little is known about the group.

Characteristics:

Recent leadership:
Unknown

Recent leadership:

Background:
Jund al-Islam was widely unknown before 2011. However, reports indicate that Jund al-Islam conducted a military show on the day of Osama bin Laden’s death in May of that year. Two yearslater, on September 11, 2013, Jund al-Islam reportedly
claimed
alarge attack on a military intelligence facility in Rafah.

Background:

Jund al-Islam had no other known activity until October 2017. On November 11, the group released a recorded statement claiming responsibility for an attack in North Sinai a month before. That attack targeted members of Wilayat Sinai, whom Jund al-Islam branded “apostates.” The voice recording
called
on members of Wilayat Sinai to “leave the group and stop killing Muslims.” Following a Wilayat Sinai-claimed attack on truck drivers carried out days later, Jund al-Islam released a statement condemning the attack.

Ideology:
In Jund al-Islam’s first claim of responsibility, the group denounced the Egyptian military as traitors to Islam and them responsible for crimes committedin the interest of “the Jews.” Although this statement was, at that time, the only official Jund al-Islam proclamation, the timing of the aforementioned military show and the attack on the intelligence facility suggested loyalty to al-Qaeda.

Ideology:

Jund al-Islam’s recent statements express the group’s vitriol for members of the Islamic State, mirroring regional hostility between groups aligned with al-Qaeda and those aligned with the Islamic State. In an audio recording
released
on November 11, 2017, the group said of Wilayat Sinai: “The [Abu Bakr al-] Baghdadi-led
khawarij
[a derogatory term for rebels or dissidents] were irrefutably proven to have repeatedly assaulted Muslims in Sinai and laid siege to Gaza. A group of them were found infiltrating the camps of your Jund al-Islam brothers more than once, carrying small arms and lights weapons, with the intention of attacking them.”